New-York tribune. [volume], January 06, 1901, Image 15

About New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924

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iXtL&STQRV OF THE NINETEENTH jtEyiirffe
What Does the Nineteenth Century Stand For ?
What Are the Probabilities and the Possibilities of the Twentieth?
y*xs*> QmcsVvotvs 3Vve 3lx\s\BeYec\ so *ssx asKU^Tbe vci tt\e Symposium AD\v\e\v^\z '•iuYw.Tie *50-^.
4X this combined review and forecast, Professor. John Trowbridge, of Harvard University, widely known as an original investigator of electrical phenome
na, foretells the probable uses of electricity in the next hundred years. He is cautious in his predictions, but anticipates a cheaper method of convert
ing electricity into light and heat, a complete network of trolley lines all over the United States, smokeless cities, a more extensive use of the tele
phone, i widening of the range of wireless telegraphy, revolutions in industry through electro-chemistry, a new method of discovering metallic deposits
in the earth, new light on the nature of nervous action, the size of atoms and the relations between gravitation and the other forces of Nature.
W. M. Daniels, Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University, in depicting the rapid and varied phases of educational progress m the nine
teenth century, avers that diffusion throughout the civilized world of rudimentary instruction is the movement which, in scope and importance, outstrips all the
others combined. Treating first of this radical dismemberment of the empire of illiteracy by means of the common school, he passes on to what he terms the
extension of the educational franchise, as exemplified by the kindergarten, by specialized instruction for defectives, such as the blind and the dumb; by higher educa
tion for women, and the popularization of knowledge by means of summer schools and university extension centres. In closing he utters a warning against the
modern tendency toward a shortsighted utilitarian ideal, especially in secondary and college education.
Professor Charles A. Doremus, of the College of the City of New- York, after showing that, although practised as an art from the earliest times, chemistry
dates its independence as a science from Lavoisier's day, points out its close relationship to biology, geology, physics, astronomy and the higher mathematics,
notes the development of the laws according to which the elements combine, and then discusses at considerable length chemistry's varied industrial service.
This in agriculture alone is extensive. It has also thrown a flood of light on the composition of minerals, and made possible the separation of many metals
from their ores. Chemistry explains to man the nature of the air he breathes and the food he eats. But it has other conquests yet to achieve, and Professor
Doremus hints at some of them.
One of the most fascinating branches in the entire range of mm.- activities is the exploration of virgin territory, and General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., one
of the few men who have felt their blood thrill with the joy of pushing into unknown regions, describes enthusiastically the advances in geographic knowledge
which have been made in the last one hundred years, during which the unexplored area of the world's surface has been reduced from 60 per cent to about 10.
He notes the important fact that pioneer discoveries are yielding steadily to scientific exploration, where the work includes not merely the topographic distribu
tion of mountain or river, of lake or plain, but the determination, in a cursory manner at least, of existent vegetable and animal life, of climatic "conditions, and
especially of the ethnology of inhabited areas. Being an Arctic explorer himself, with a fine record, General Greely devotes considerable attention to the numer
ous Polar quests which have marked the nineteenth century, and have left the problem yet unsolved.
The surprising advances in machinery brought about by the inventiveness of man— especially of Americans set out by Edward W. Byrn, well known
as the author of "The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century." He attributes the pre-eminence of the last hundred years in the perfection of almost
innumerable mechanical agencies which stimulate industrial progress to the fostering care of the patent system, a system which has crystallized the brilliant
thoughts of mechanical geniuses into enduring records, and has furnished the incentive of fair and just reward to the inventor.
What is probably the most
important economic movement of the
century, the rise and growth of indus
trial combinations called trusts, has
been reviewed by James B. Dill, the
noted corporation lawyer of this city,
who probably knows as much abotit
them as any other man living. He
draws the line clearly between the
advantages, on the one hand, which
great industrial combinations, when
properly controlled, have already con
ferred and will continue to confer upon
the laborer, the mechanic, the ex
porter, the consumer and the manu
facturer, and those evils, on the other
hand, which follow the formation of
trusts when the promoter and the
financier are permitted to use them
for merely selfish purposes. Mr. Dill
thinks this new phase of commerce
has come to stay. He believes Na
tional control of trusts will supersede
State control, and does not hesitate to
predict that the time will come when
preferred industrial stocks in good
companies will sell at prices comparing
favorably with the quotations for rail
road and other standard securities.
The predominant music of the last one hundred years has been instrumental and secular, says H. E. Krehbiel, an unimpeachable authority on musical matters
and American member of the International Jury of Awards on Music at the Paris Exposition of 1900. He holds that America's record in connection with the improve
ment of the piano is the brightest page which she has in the account of the century's music.
The two most striking characteristics of the United States in the last ten decades are declared by Roscoe C. E. Brown to be its glorious expansion and its
triumphant nationalization. Mr. Brown is a close student of American political questions. He traces these two processes from the year MM, when the United
States was a loosely knit and dissoluble confederation of mutually jealous States, with an area of only 827,844 square miles and a population of 5..V)u.000. through all
the vicissitudes of vacillating policies and of civil war up to the confederation of a full fledged and indissoluble Nation, covering an area of upward of three and a
half million square miles, having a population of more than seventy-six millions, and a flattering prospect of undoubted predominance among all the civilized peoples
of the earth.
The constitutional theory of governnment and the national idea in the formation of sovereignties are traced by W. Fletcher Johnson from their embryotic state
at the beginning of the century through their successive stages of development up to their present relative perfection, where they dominate the world. Mr. Johnson
has made a specialty of the study of foreign public affairs. He holds that the nineteenth century is not to be compared with any other century in the progress which
it has brought to the civil welfare of mankind, but is comparable only in that respect with the sum of all the other centuries of the Christian era. Mr. Johnson has also
contributed a luminous paper upon the wars of the last one hundred years. He finds it impossible to declare the century a peaceful one, though it opened with a nota
ble cessation of war and closed with a more notable essay at universal peace; but he arrives at the conclusion that if the nineteenth century has not been more free
from bloodshed than its predecessors, it has at least been more free from blood shed in vain, and has brought the world perceptibly nearer to the millennium.
Various scientific developments, including evolution, astronomy, mining and metallurgy, medicine and surgery, photography and aeronaut.es, have been
treated of by James P. Hall, who for years has devoted practically all \m time to the observation ol scientific matters, and to the expression of their phenomena
in language easily understood by the lay reader.
The history of religion in the nineteenth century, is traced by the Rev. Dr. James B. Wasson, a popular writer upon ecclesiastical topics (formerly of St.
Thomas's, in this city), who considers that the modern drift of mankind away from theological dogma and creed toward the humanitarian side of religion is one
of the most marked characteristics of Christianity in the last hundred years. As for the infant century, he holds that as the sociological and ethical side of
religion more and more nearly attains the supreme place in the thought of the followers of Christ, that which is called applied Christianity will bring about
a profound modification of the historic theofogy of the churches.
The most important reforms in jurisprudence were made by the two great English speaking nations,' in the opinion of Colonel Henry W. Sackett, one of
the rising members of the New-York Bar, who handles this subject; nevertheless, he includes in his survey. of the field a glance at the effects of the adoption ot
the Napoleonic Code in France, and of the advances made in international law in other European countries, y
Letters and the fine arts are discussed by Royal Cortissoz, a recognized authority. He lays his finger unerringly upon the literary paradox of the times
—the fact that while mankind absorbs itself in fiction more than in any other kind of reading, it is yet at bottom in love with practicality, and daily grows more dis
dainful of illusion. Mr. Cortissoz holds that the prime achievement of art in the nineteenth century has been the development of landscape painting.
" The American farmer of the nineteenth century has been described by S. Cushman Caldwell, who has been well and widely known in the circle of expert
writers upon agricultural topics for at least .twenty-five years. He graphically outlines.the improvements in traction by land and water, which have changed the
farmer's lot from one of isolation and enforced self-dependency into one which is in rapid and direct. communication with , the great commercial centres, and in
, v hirh the farmer is a producer for the world, from all parts of which he. in return draws those. things that he cannot profitably raise. In those early days drudg
in was his inevitable portion. Now that machinery has relieved him = from severe muscular labor, the farmer succeeds, like the merchant and manufacturer,.- by
the operation of his mental faculties. ,- .¦ ->.\.*.
The notable expansion and diversified enlargement of sports in the nineteenth century have been described by" A. F. Bowers, known all over the country
as a fluent writer upon all forms of recreation, and a recognized authority on the turf.
NEW-YORK DAILY TRIBUNE. SUNDAY. JANUARY 6. 1001.
EARLY DAYS OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
CONTRASTED.
THBX.
Washington hnd been hurled inn weeks
l»efore the ncnii of his death reached
Boston.
V.i a mile of electric i»lfgr«ph line In afl
' the world.
From Xfw-York to Rcilnn. week** Jour
ney by ttnitr
A trip from Xcir-Vork to China and hack
consumed a year at leant.
Not a sinsle mile of steam rallTrny in nil
Hi.- world.
Not one practicable ¦>teamhoat In all the
WOrM *
The human voice carried only n« far as
the limn* nmlil force or the winds
bear It.
Agonies of the subject nnder the »Bf-
Keon'a knife nnallevlnted li» «nif«"
tliettcs.
Sot n single mi fine* hank in the In lied
States.
Woman a. chattel, all of her property he
lonj;lnK to her hushaml. who could
In-lit her an freely as he mluhl a. beast
of bnxderi.
The negro considered, even by the pulpit.
>.. lirniiiu been destined by his Creator
i.. 1.. the white man's slave.
yow.
Ihf result of even a honp race in l"n«-
Iniiil l> nnnnimi't-cl in .America a. few
ml. nil.-, after it I- actually over, mid
honrn ithe H il of that time by the clock.
Over two hundred thousand mile* of tele-
C r,.,.h line, in the United Mate* alone.
From »n-York to Boston fl re hnnr. by
pnrlor ear.
A month now »nffire«.
KnoiiKh miles of steam rnllmn to hell
the world live ttmci and represent! t\te
tin Invested capital of ahoul 911,000.
000.000.
Registered steam vessel* of an estimated
.total value of nbont ? 1.000.000.000.
Th.- human voice carries from >r»T-\..rU
to Kansas City l.v telephone.
Painless «nrit»n, thanks to the discovery
of more than a. dozen a nr*l bet li-».
About one thousand «n\ I n » hank*, vclth
*•.:..-><«>, <hk>.immi deposits and U.iuii.ikm'i
depositors.
For nil purposes of business, fiirnrr»hl|i
of property a.nd. of her indivldna.l
earnliiK". the married woman in in
this country as Independent as n num.
The necro regarded as a. man and a,
brother, nnd the Mnvr trade pursued
only In out of the way corner* of »he
earth, nml then under {treat difficulties.
The history of the stage in
America for the century just ended is
commented upon by William Winter,
widely acknowledged to be the most
able dramatic critic of the day. He
begins by referring to those early
times when actors' salaries were small
and the surroundings of the theatre
cheap, but when the standard of taste
in intellectual matters was hich and
the audiences generally fastidious. He
closes by deploring the power of cer
tain commercial influences which, al
though generous in expenditure and
lavish in the way of material embel
lishment for the play, threaten to nun
the stage in America by making 1:5
tone vulgar and common.
Some of the more conspicuous
features of social development have
been lightly touched upon by Hart
Lyman. one of the most graceful
among New-York writers of the Eng
lish language. He finds that in the
matter of healthful conditions of exist
ence the contrast between the present
and the not remote past is simply
stupendous.